Well yes exactly, I couldn't see Pathan hitting Australia's express bowlers about. Fortunately Australia have bowled Twatto at him, and Hogg's gave him a pie.

In T20I you want someone who can carry on if they open the batting and get through the powerplay. It makes a big difference for instance when one (or both) of Australia's openers make it through to the 10th-12th over because they make what are statistically the quietest overs (7th over is the quietest, then it builds from there) into bigger overs because they can continue smacking the odd ball for 6, turning average overs into double figure overs. So you can easily gain 15-20 runs in that period over the 'average'. Whereas scoring much more than 9-10 an over at the death is difficult and requires assistance from the bowlers.

Australia should 'fear' a set batsman far more than a set player such as Pathan.

Plus, the opening pinch hitter role in T20 makes less sense IMO. Maybe one of the openers might try to bat long but the other guy is likely going to play about as aggressively as a pinch hitter anyway. You'd rather have your best batsmen up front.

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